On 18/09/2011 09:17, Ralph Dratman wrote:
> I feel like a small child asking this, but how can I get Mathematica to say
> (x - 1) instead of (-1 + x), or to give me
>
> 4 (1 - q)
>
> instead of the doubly annoying
>
> -4 (-1 + q) ?
>
> In brief, given the choice, I prefer to look at subtraction rather than
> negation. The binary operator instead of the unary.
>
> I'm not asking Mathematica to read my mind about the way I want every
> possible expression to look, rather I am hoping to find out how to transform
> something I don't like into something I like, in a way that is guaranteed
> not to change the value of the expression.
>
> Ralph Dratman
The general problem of forcing expressions to appear in a required form
can be quite tricky, but using TraditionalForm will solve this case:
In[105]:= x - 1 // TraditionalForm
Out[105]//TraditionalForm= x-1
TraditionalForm tries to make maths look as though it came out of text book.
David Bailey
http://www.dbaileyconsultancy.co.uk